Quickie: Nemetschek acquires MCS Solutions for building ops

Really quickly, since I’m at the Siemens analyst event: Nemetschek just announced that it has acquired MCS Solutions. maker of building management solutions. MCS Solutions currently serves over 1.5 million active users in over 60 countries, across private and public assets. MCS Solutions currently employs over 200 people and anticipates revenue of around €15 million for 2018. Nemetschek purchased 100% of the shares at a revenue multiple of “between 3-3.5x”, which I calculate at around €50 million.

What are building management solutions? Software that enables landlords, managing agents and others keep tabs on their real estate portfolios and orchestrate facility management, such as assigning office spaces; workplace management, which includes maintenance scheduling and other tasks related to keeping the facility up and running.

Interestingly, MCS also developed a smart building platform called COBUNDU that uses sensors and data analytics to optimize the “occupant experience and facility service delivery”.  It’s likely that this was a major factor in Nemetschek’s decision; the push towards sensor-enabled monitoring and analytics is gaining traction in the AEC world, given the distributed nature of assets and staff.

“MCS Solutions is a perfect match for our solution portfolio that opens up a new market segment in which we will build to a leading market position … With the integration of MCS Solutions, we drive digitalization through the entire building process and are going to realize a seamless exchange of information before and, continuously, during the usage of a building,” says Patrik Heider, Spokesman and CFOO of the Nemetschek Group. “With the strong and global market position of MCS Solutions, we are taking on the role of being an innovator for the entire lifecycle of buildings.”